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MATHEMATICAL OPERATION IN THE
STHĀNĀNGA SUTRA
Nagendra Kr. Singh
The “Sthānāñga Sūtra” is one of the oldest Jaina canonical literature. Its date is about 300 B. C. According to the Sthānāñga Sū'ra, the topics for discussion in sāṁkhyāna or calculations are ten in number. For almost a thousand years this mathematical interpretation provided a frame work for Indian mathematics. Kapadia (1937) gives an interpretation of the topics according to Abhayadeva Sūri. According to this interpretation these ten mathematical topics represent calculations pertaining the following: (1) Parikarma-summation (if this implies summation of series
then the sixth type below must mean multiplication), (2) Vyavahāro-śrenivyayahāra etc. treated in patiganita, (3) Rciju-planegeometry, so far as its calculations are carried on
by means of a rope, (4) Rāsī-a heap of corn etc. usually called rasivyayahāra, (5) Kālasavarņa-fractions, (6) Yavattavat—multiplication or summation of natural numbers, (7) Varga--square, (8Ghana-cube. (9) Vargāvarga—fourth power, (10) Kalpa--splitting wood by means of a saw styled as krekacā
vyavahāra. Kapadia also mentions a slightly different verse, quoted by Śīlāñka Sūri, which lists eleven topics. The above ten in a different order and a topic called pudgala. Besides the fact that we are clear what pudgala means Kapadia also mentions that the weight of the canonical nature of the "Sthānāñga Sūtra” makes the eleven topic version hardly admissible.
There is a wide gulf between this interpretation and that of Datta and Singh (1935) The tenth topic is read by them as “vikalpa" and not "kalpa''; and they have translated these ten topics as follows:
(1) Parikarma-fundamental operations,
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